Businesses and consumers in Kansas City are excited to be among the first in the country to experience the new superfast Google fiber-optic network for broadband. Google started a six-week rally on July 26 to allow residents of Kansas City to register their interest in the fiber-optic broadband service.

Google calls the neighborhoods that could receive its fiber-optic network "fiberhoods". Google says that three of the so-called fiberhoods reached the goal to qualify to get service on the first day the announcement was made. Google says that in the past week alone 63 different neighborhoods qualified for fiber service.

Pre-registration for the service closed as of Sunday with 180 out of the 202 fiberhoods qualified for service. Google says that the 180 qualified neighborhoods isn't the final tally. The company says it is still processing address verification requests and pre-registrations from apartment buildings and condominiums.

An official blog post from Google read:

We’ve been truly inspired by, and have learned so much from, the efforts of local nonprofits, community centers, libraries, schools, and churches to pre-register their neighbors. And we want to continue working with these groups as they promote digital literacy throughout the community. So going forward, we aim to support great organizations in Kansas City in a programmatic and strategic way, through grants and joint educational efforts focused on digital literacy. Together we will work to equip Kansas Citians with the knowledge and tools they need to get online and use the web to their advantage for education, job hunting and more. We’ll have more details about this program soon.

Google also says that neighborhoods that didn't qualify during Pre-registration will have another chance. Google says that it will include neighborhoods that failed to qualify in a future rally sometime next year where an attempt to qualify will be offered again.

Well, there's costs and advantages to everything. If you own a ranch or farm, or even live in many small towns, then you can't get cheap, fast internet. That's just the way things work. You know the advantages to living there, though. Shikata ga nai.

When I first heard Century Link had bought the DSL ISP services from Qwest, I was hopeful they might turn things around and provide Comcast some incentive to change. Turns out they didn't. At least it didn't get any worse, as sometimes happens.